ALES 204 at the University of Alberta has definitely proven to be my most interesting class this semester! No quizzes, midterms, or final exams?! I definitely enjoyed the participation aspect of this class - the guest speakers did amazing jobs, and we got to keep up with the conversation via Twitter! At first, my friend
Marney Steadman and I were skeptical about this class, but it has definitely taught me a lot about the power of social media. All of the
Generation Y students who are opposed to the professional use of social media should familiarize themselves with some platforms - because social media is taking over the workforce, whether we like it or not. ALES 204 boldly illustrated that the professional use of Facebook and Twitter (to name the two most popular) will be a part of our lives from here on out. This class should be called ALES 204 - Generation Y. I think it would be quite fitting! In ALES 204, I've learned so much about online communication and social media that I didn't realize before. For example, I never realized there was an actual word for tagging - folksonomy. I was curious about who coined the actual term, so that's what I chose to write about for my self-choice blog post.
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Figure 1: Visual depitction of public speaking
From Jonny Goldstein (2009), Location
[digital image]
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My favorite part of class was definitely the Twitter participation during lectures, but the Wikipedia assignment definitely taught us the most valuable lesson. Take everything you see online and analyze it
yourself! As students preparing to enter the workforce in the industries of the "Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Sciences" we must learn how to be critical about what we read over the internet. I'm majoring in Nutrition and Food Sciences, which is one area where internet
quackery is extremely common. Anyone can claim to be a "nutritionist" without any means of previous education. This causes many individuals to believe false health claims over the internet. Seek professional advice before deciding to go on a diet just because some celebrity told you to online! The only nutrition articles that can be deemed trustworthy are peer-reviewed.
Communication is so widespread today, even our Generation X employers are realizing how they can use social media as a tool "investigate" before they decide to hire someone. So many university students don't realize that their Twitter feed is set to public... or maybe they realize, but simply don't care. It's the first thing that pops up when your name is googled! In order to avoid making a bad first impression on potential employers, users should consider taking off their last name, or better yet - choosing the option of "protecting" your tweets! Save yourself, before a silly tweet causes you to lose a job before you even attend the interview! That would be quite unfortunate. In the lab, we learned how to create a professional Facebook page, which basically served as an online resume. This way, employers see our Facebook page first during a google search, instead of a casual Facebook profile littered with not-so-professional photographs.
Also, does anyone find it humorous that the word "googled" is actually considered a verb nowadays?
Here are some of my comments on other students' blog posts:
To conclude, I'd like to say a huge thank-you to Jessica Laccetti and all of the TAs for jumping in to help out while Jess was away! Presenting powerpoints for an entire hour to a lecture hall of students with Twitter at their fingertips would honestly be nerve-wracking, however you all did a great job of keeping us focused. It definitely inspired me to improve on my public speaking skills.
